*46 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



METEOROLOGY. 



THE PANAMA CANAL AND ITS POSSIBLE INFLUENCE UPON THE 

 OCEAN CURRENTS AND UPON CLIMATE. 



M. O. BALDWIN, M. D. 



Referring to the above topic it is hardly necessary to say that the attention 

 of the whole civilized world is, and deservedly so, directed at the present time 

 to this great work and the benefits to commerce and civilization which will result 

 therefrom. 



It is not the purpose of the writer to treat of these, but to direct attention to 

 the possible physical changes upon the earth's surface, which may be brought 

 about by the completion of this canal. 



The surface of the ocean on the Pacific side of the Isthmus is about fifteen 

 feet higher than it is on the side of the Atlantic. This elevation of the waters of 

 the Pacific above those of the Atlantic is maintained, it is probable, by the 

 peculiar direction of the Pacific Ocean currents, which, while they carry forward 

 to this point very great bodies of water, impede, and to a great extent, obstruct 

 their return. The consequence of this must be that upon the completion of the 

 canal, which is to be, it is understood, a tide water canal, there will be created a 

 current from the west eastward, through the Isthmus. 



The length of the canal will be about thirty-three miles, consequently there 

 will result a fall approaching closely six inches per mile. The pressure of so great 

 a body of water as is found in the Pacific, will give to this current in the canal a 

 much greater rapidity than will exist in the current of a stream wherein we have 

 the same degree of inclination. The result of this will be that the shores and 

 bottom of the canal will be rapidly cut away. 



Now let us consider briefly the currents of the ocean. There exists in the 

 Pacific Ocean the great Japanese current, which sweeps from the coast of Japan 

 northward and is divided upon the Aleutian Islands, on the coast of Alaska, a 

 portion passing through Behring Straits and a portion finding its way down the 

 western coast of the continent as far south as Central America, where it is deflected 

 westwardly to join and again return with the currents from the South Pacific 

 which are diverted from Australia and the Phillipine Islands and form a current 

 which passes directly eastward to the Isthmus of Panama. This current in its 

 passage eastward is joined by yet other currents from the great South Pacific cur- 

 rents which sweep up the west coast of South America, and together these form 

 the great equatorial counter-current, and the entire force of this mighty stream 

 is broken and expended upon the western shores of the Isthmus. 



